Darrell M. West
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Darrell M. West is a Senior Fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation of the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He is a former political science professor at Brown University. His research focuses on media, technology, and elections.
Background He was born in Richmond, Indiana and grew up on a dairy farm outside of Eaton, Ohio. His father was Robert M. West (1923-1987) and his mother was Jean E. West (1925-2005). His siblings include Kenneth West of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Joanne Shaver of College Corner, Ohio, and Shirley Mitchell of Eaton, Ohio. He graduated from Eaton High School in 1972 and went on to earn a B.A. from Miami University (Ohio) in 1976 and a Ph.D. in political science from Indiana University in 1981. He taught at Brown University from 1982 to 2008. He has worked at the Brookings Institution since 2008.
CareerHe has won four book awards, and his books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. His Digital Government book is the winner of the American Political Science Association Don K. Price award for best book on technology and his co-authored book Cross Talk won the American Political Science Association Doris Graber award for best book on communications. His Brain Gain book won the ForeWord Review Book of the Year for political science and his Billionaires book won the ForeWord Book of the Year Silver Award for Political Science. Billionaires also was named by the Washington Post as one of the best political books of 2014.
He has been honored by Public Administration Review for having written one of the 75 most influential articles since 1940. This was for his 2004 article "E-Government and the Transformation of Service Delivery and Citizen Attitudes."
In 2015, his Brookings Institution project on financial inclusion was named by philanthropist Bill Gates as one of the top five "good news stories" of the year. Writing on December 18, 2015 at his personal blog, Gates said that "mobile banking exceeds our optimistic projections" and is "one of the best tools we've ever seen for helping people lift themselves out of poverty."
Book Publications1. Making Campaigns Count, (Greenwood Press, 1984)
2. Congress and Economic Policymaking, (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1987)
3. Air Wars: Television Advertising in Political Campaigns, 1952-2000, (Congressional Quarterly Press, 1993)(Japanese edition, 1997; Second edition, 1997; Third edition, 2001; Fourth edition, 2005; Fifth edition, 2009; Sixth edition, 2013; Seventh edition, 2017)
4. Public Opinion in Rhode Island, 1984-1993, (Brown University, 1994) (with Tom Anton and Jack Combs)
5. Cross Talk: Citizens, Candidates, and the Media in a Presidential Campaign, (University of Chicago Press, 1996) (with Marion Just, Ann Crigler, Dean Alger, Tim Cook and Montague Kern) (Winner of 2003 Doris Graber Award for Best Book on Political Communication)
6. The Sound of Money, (W. W. Norton, 1998) (with Burdett Loomis)
7. Checkbook Democracy: How Money Corrupts Political Campaigns, (Northeastern University Press, 2000)
8. Patrick Kennedy: The Rise to Power, (Prentice-Hall, 2000)
9. The Rise and Fall of the Media Establishment, (Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2001; Chinese translation, Peking University Press, 2009)
10. Rhode Island Public Opinion, 1994-2000, (Brown University, 2001)(with Tom Anton and Jack Combs)
11. Celebrity Politics, (Prentice-Hall, 2002)(with John Orman)
12. Running on Empty?: Campaign Discourse in American Elections, (Rowman and Littlefield, 2004) (co-edited with Sandy Maisel)
13. Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance, (Princeton University Press, 2005, Chinese translation, Science Press, 2010) (winner of Don K. Price Award for Best Book on Technology)
14. Evaluating Campaign Quality: Can the Electoral Process Be Improved?, (Cambridge University Press, 2007) (with Sandy Maisel and Brett Clifton)
15. Biotechnology Policy Across National Boundaries: The Science-Industrial Complex, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
16. Digital Medicine: Health Care in the Internet Era, (Brookings Institution Press, 2009) (with Edward Miller)
17. Brain Gain: Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy, (Brookings Institution Press, 2010) (winner of the Foreward Magazine for best book in political science)
18. The Next Wave: Using Digital Technology to Further Social and Political Innovation, (Brookings Institution Press, 2011)(Korean translation, Korea National Open University Press, 2013; Chinese translation, Shanghai Publishing, 2014)
19. Digital Schools: How Technology Can Transform Education, (Brookings Institution Press, 2012)
20. Billionaires: Reflections on the Upper Crust, (Brookings Institution Press, 2014; Korean translation, Wonderbox Publishing, 2016)
21. Going Mobile: How Wireless Technology Is Reshaping Our Lives, (Brookings Institution Press, 2015)
22. Megachange: Economic Disruption, Political Upheaval, and Social Strife in the 21st Century, Brookings Institution Press, 2016; Korean translation, Hanul Books, 2018)
23. The Future of Work: Robots, AI, and Automation, (Brookings Institution Press, 2018; Korean translation, Hanbit Biz, 2019)
24. Divided Politics, Divided Nation: Hyperconflict in the Trump Era, (Brookings Institution Press, 2019)
25. Turning Point: Policymaking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence, (Brookings Institution Press, 2020) (co-author: John R. Allen)
26. Power Politics: Trump and the Assault on American Democracy, (Brookings Institution Press, 2022)